


Do You Say "Zee" or Do You Say "Zed"?

by Ride_Forever



Category: due South
Genre: Community: fan_flashworks, Dialogue-Only, Gen, Humor, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-02
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2018-01-03 03:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1065411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ride_Forever/pseuds/Ride_Forever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser lectures Ray about the letter "zed". Ray tries to sleep through the lecture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do You Say "Zee" or Do You Say "Zed"?

**Author's Note:**

> This is a triple drabble written for the fan_flashworks "Z Challenge," which stated "fanworks must contain someone or something that starts with the letter Z". This fic contains twenty-one occurrences of someone or something that starts with the letter Z (overachiever much?).
> 
> TYK to old_grognard for beta...and for his hilarious spot-on impersonations of Fraser and both Rays.
> 
> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“So the Duck Boys got to the scene right after me, like I was only halfway outta the GTO when they pulled up. Someone musta tipped the perps; they’d lit out so fast they left one of the motorcycles behind. Huey asks ‘whose motorcycle is this?’ and Dewey chimes in with ‘it’s a chopper, baby,’ so I just had to say ‘whose chopper is this? – it’s Zed’s’….”

“Who’s Zed?”

“Heh, Fraser, that’s exactly what the chick in the movie says, too. And then Bruce Willis says ‘Zed’s dead, baby.’ ”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand the reference, Ray…although I’m sure you don’t mean Paul Zed, the former member of the Canadian Parliament…or anything having to do with the last letter of the alphabet….”

“Nope. I don’t make references to members of the Canadian Government, former or otherwise….”

“Well, actually, Dief is named after….”

“…and I come from this little place called America where we end the alphabet with a zee.”

“As a matter of fact, the Canadians of Newfoundland use the ‘zee’ pronunciation.”

“Huh, you don’t say.”

“On the contrary, Ray, I do say.”

“No, Frase, that was one of those idioticmatic…uh…idiomatic…things. Means ‘mildly surprised’.”

“Yes, well…it might also surprise you to know that the ‘zed’ pronunciation is, internationally, more common than the ‘zee’ pronunciation, being used in both British English and Commonwealth English, having been derived from the original Greek letter of zeta.”

“Much more of this zed zee stuff and I’ll start ‘ _catching_ some zees’.”

“Catching…?”

“It means ‘sleeping,’ Fraser.”

“Ah. In conclusion then: there is the French zede, the German and Dutch and Polish and Romanian and Czech zet, the Spanish and Italian zeta, the Swedish zäta, the Norwegian zett, the Portuguese ze, the….”

“zzzzzzzzzz”

“Ray.”

“zzzzzzzzzz”

“Ray.”

“zzzzzzzzzz”

“Ray. Ray! RAY!”


End file.
